OTTAWA – Did it really all start less than 10 days ago? When Parliament resumed in mid-October, the Conservative government hoped to dampen the Senate spending affair and look to the future: to a free-trade agreement with Europe; to slaying the deficit; to offering consumer-friendly measures to voters in advance of the next election. Instead, a Conservative senator introduced motions to suspend without pay three senators whose expenses had been deemed inappropriate. That’s when the fight began …

OCTOBER 26, 2013– The Senate chambers are shown in this photo taken during a public tour of the Parliament buildings in Ottawa on Saturday, October 26, 2013. Senators continue to debate on a motion to suspend embattled Senators Patrick Brazeau, Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy over their disputed expenses in Ottawa on Saturday, October 26, 2013. (Justin Tang for National Post)]

Monday, Oct. 21: Sen. Mike Duffy’s lawyer, Donald Bayne, holds a news conference to read excerpts from emails suggesting the PMO approved of Duffy’s questionable housing expense claims and which, he intimates, suggest the PMO even planned the repayment of the housing expenses. Bayne warns that Duffy will fight back against the Conservative party if he is suspended from the Senate.

Key Quote: “He had the good sense to ask and clear this with the Senate leader. He has not been for years surreptitiously trying to make inappropriate living allowance claims; he was cleared from day one.” – Lawyer Donald Bayne.

Tuesday, Oct. 22: All three embattled senators, Patrick Brazeau, Duffy and Pamela Wallin, show up in the Senate to challenge the motions to suspend them without pay. Duffy gives an explosive speech accusing the prime minister, the PMO and former Senate government leader Marjory LeBreton of bullying him into repaying living expenses that he says were legitimately claimed. Brazeau makes a short statement that he, too, will fight. “I did not do anything wrong.”

Key Quote: “So after caucus on Feb. 13, I met the prime minister and (chief of staff) Nigel Wright. Just the three of us. I said that despite the smear in the papers, I had not broken the rules. But the prime minister wasn’t interested in explanations or the truth.” – Sen. Mike Duffy.

Sen. Mike Duffy. drian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Wednesday, Oct: 23:Pamela Wallin makes her statement, accusing senators Marjory LeBreton and Carolyn Stewart Olsen of a personal vendetta against her. She argues it is unfair to take away her pay and health insurance before she has been found guilty of any crimes.

Key Quote: “This issue is no longer about expenses or audits or transparency or accountability or even about the reputation of this chamber – it is about the abuse of power.” – Sen. Pamela Wallin.

Thursday, Oct. 24: The Quebec Court of Appeal rules that a federal government bill on Senate reform is unconstitutional. In the Senate, meanwhile, Sen. Marjory LeBreton defends herself, suggesting Duffy’s speech contains inaccuracies. But another Conservative senator and former party president, Don Plett, announces he will vote against the motion to suspend that was introduced by his own Senate leader, Conservative Claude Carignan.

Key Quote: “The story that Sen. Duffy spun in this place is not based in facts and it certainly leaves open to question what he was talking about and what he was thinking.” – Sen. Marjory LeBreton.

Friday, Oct. 25: The Senate holds a rare Friday session to continue debate on the motion to suspend. In a jaw-dropper, Brazeau accuses government Senate leader Claude Carignan of offering him a backroom deal to soften his punishment. Carignan says Brazeau misunderstood.

Wallin tables more documents, which she claims will prove a Conservative party conspiracy to discredit her.

Monday, Oct. 28: In a radio interview, Prime Minister Stephen Harper suggests his former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, did not voluntarily resign over the Duffy affair, as Harper has frequently said, but instead was “dismissed” over the personal cheque for $90,000 that Wright wrote to Duffy to help with his housing expenses.

In the Senate, in another broadside, Duffy tables documents supporting his claim that the PMO had knowledge of the repayment scheme and even paid the fees his lawyer charged to negotiate the deal. The Conservative party confirms it paid legal fees for him.

Meanwhile in a media interview, Patrick Brazeau says the RCMP has yet to be in contact with him in its investigation of his expenses, and accuses Sen. Marjory LeBreton of not liking aboriginal people.

Key Quote: “I can only conclude this was a set-up, planned by the Senate leadership; under the direction of the PMO; and designed to destroy my credibility with Canadians if and when I ever went public about the real story behind the $90,000.” – Sen. Mike Duffy.

Tuesday, Oct. 29: Prime Minister Stephen Harper is grilled in the House of Commons and keeps to his line that senators claiming expenses to which they are not entitled should be taken off the public payroll. The Senate continues to debate.

Key Quote: “Senators collected expenditures that they should not have collected in our judgment, and of course a member of my staff facilitated an improper payment on that. That member has been removed and those senators who have taken improper payment should be removed from the public payroll.” – Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

I'm the editorial pages editor for the Ottawa Citizen. I've also been the Citizen's executive producer, politics, and managing editor of Postmedia News. (My favourite gig, however, was as editor of the... read more Kingston Whig-Standard). I'm a grad of U of T, Western and Carleton.View author's profile